Robbie Rogers penned a powerful blog post Friday, in which he announced he is stepping away from soccer at age 25 and revealed that he is gay.

Rogers, as you may remember, played for coach Sigi Schmid and alongside Brad Evans with the Columbus Crew.

He was named to the MLS Best XI in 2008, the year the Crew won the MLS Cup, and featured for a period of time with the U.S. men’s national team. Here is a snippet from the blog post:

I always thought I could hide this secret. Football was my escape, my purpose, my identity. Football hid my secret, gave me more joy than I could have ever imagined… I will always be thankful for my career. I will remember Beijing, The MLS Cup, and most of all my teammates. I will never forget the friends I have made a long the way and the friends that supported me once they knew my secret.